INTERVIEW: AIRSHIP

Quickly becoming one of our favourite albums of the year, Airship’sStuck In This Ocean came out on PIAS on 5 September. It’s one of those rare album that’s chock full of singles – literally one fuzzy pop anthem after another. We caught up with Elliott from the band about food in Poland, Manchester, and footie.

“Kids” (Thinnen remix)

1. Let’s get the serious questions out of the way first: tell us about how you came together. When did you realise you were in a proper, serious band?

A couple of us had been in a band together before Airship with a few other members. When they left and we got Steven in on drums and decided to change the name and have a go at it properly. I guess the first time it felt serious was when we put out our first demo and suddenly we we’re being contacted by all these press, management, booking, and label people. It was very exciting but daunting at the same time as we really didn’t expect it.

2. How has Manchester influenced you as a people and musicians? How has it been limiting?

I think your surroundings will always have a subconscious influence on your music. Manchester has its part to play in our sound from that point of view as its where we spent a lot of time writing, but we never set out to be a stereotypical Manchester sounding band. Its musical past hasn’t played a massive part on influencing us as a band and that’s the only way it’s limiting as people expect you to have a certain sound if your from Manchester, or act a certain way.

3. You’ve gigged in a lot of cities. What are your favourite non-English towns to play in and why?

We just played in Barcelona for the first time and that was amazing, its a beautiful city. Its the first city I’ve ever been to a city that has a really good proper beach, we went swimming all day in the boiling sun and it was October. I’m also a big fan of Amsterdam, its just got such a relaxed vibe and everyone is so friendly. It’s just a great place to be.

4. Who are some of the best bands you’ve met on the road?

We’ve toured with some really great people like Frightened Rabbit, Editors, The Joy Formidable, and Biffy Clyro. All of them have been super kind to us and we got on with them all really well. It’s one of my favourite things about touring especially supporting, you just get to meet some really great people and not just the bands themselves, their crews as well. We’ve had some brilliant times on the road.

5. We’re all big football fans here at Bubblegunked. Who do you guys support? Have you been able to catch any matches on the road?

Well I’m a Liverpool fan but the rest of the guys are all Manchester United. Unfortunately we haven’t seen any football at all, which has been a shame but Steven keeps us updated on what’s going on via the internet. I think the guys are pretty glad they didn’t watch the 6-1 City defeat anyway. Haha

6. Lastly, which is the best city for food? What are your favourite dishes?

This is so hard as we’ve been to so many. We had some Paella in Spain which was great. Also in Warsaw we had some traditional Polish dumplings which I thought were incredible. It’s funny because tour is total pot luck with food sometimes you hit the jackpot and sometimes you have the worst meal of your life. I really like to try and sample the local delicacies where I can but a lot of the time promoters take the safe cheap option and take you to a pasta/pizza restaurant. We’re looking at going to Japan at some point in the near future which I’m really looking forward to as I LOVE Japanese food.